Police Minority Promotion Plan Gets Final OK : Litigation: Judge approves affirmative action schedule despite last-minute objections by a group of white male officers.

A federal court judge gave final approval Monday to an aggressive affirmative action program for the Los Angeles Police Department, overruling last-minute objections from a group of white male officers who argued that the plan will wrest away their promotions.

Approval of the consent decree by U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima settles four years of litigation against the city by Latino, African-American and Asian-American police officers who claimed they were denied pay raises and are underrepresented in steppingstone ranks and prestigious assignments.

Women officers also will be included in the plan--which covers promotions for detective, sergeant and lieutenant--because of a provision that was added by the Los Angeles City Council when it approved the consent decree last November.

“This is a great victory for the city of Los Angeles that will change how decisions are made within the LAPD,” said attorney Bill Lann Lee, who represented John W. Hunter, a black detective. “It will get minorities and women into decision-making jobs in a major way . . . and will be good for minorities’ communities, too, because decisions will be made by people who represent their interests,” Lee said.

Lee and Theresa Fay-Bustillos, who represented Latino officers, said minorities constitute about 45% of the Police Department’s entry-level police officer ranks. In contrast, the attorneys said, minorities make up only 24% of detectives, 21% of the department’s sergeants, and 17% of its lieutenants--considered way-stations to command-level positions.

The decree seeks parity between the minority candidates for those middle-level ranks and any officers who are promoted during three-year periods over the next 15 years. If 100% parity cannot be achieved within a given year, the department must try to promote at least 80% of the percentage of minorities who are eligible.

Under that system, if the department has 100 slots for sergeant, and 20% of the candidates are Asian-Americans, then at least 16%, or 16 of those jobs, should be awarded to Asian-Americans.

The decree--which takes effect as soon as Tashima signs his order--will also change the testing procedures for those ranks. Oral exams will be weighed more heavily and written exams less so in assessing all candidates.

Officers for Equality, a fledgling group of white officers that has formed in opposition to the consent decree, had argued in the past that the agreement would award 80% of all promotions to minorities. Fay-Bustillos, who represents the LAPD’s 1,000-member Latin American Law Enforcement Assn., said the argument was wrong and called it “simply inflammatory.”

An attorney for Officers for Equality said he plans to challenge the consent decree--first, by filing a motion to intervene in the lawsuit and, if that fails, by appealing to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“These promotions will be coming out of the hands of non-minority officers,” said attorney John K. Pierson, who filed objections on behalf of three white LAPD officers--Lt. Richard J.M. Dyer and Sgts. Daniel E. Pugel and Douglas S. Abney.

Pierson argued that the decree will make testing procedures less objective. He also argued that the city neglected to consult white males in its settlement negotiations and that the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the officers’ union, failed to hold a general membership meeting to discuss the consent decree’s repercussions.

League President Bill Violante said bulletins explaining the decree were mailed to all of the organization’s 7,800 members. Violante also said that the league has been careful to maintain a neutral position on the decree because “we have to represent everybody. We can’t represent one group of our members against another group of our members.”

In approving the complicated agreement, Tashima ordered one change requested by Pierson: that city officials can seek to end the decree before its 15-year life span if they believe its promotion goals have been met.

During that time, the city will have to spend $500,000 on a new training program for all officers interested in being promoted. Another $1 million will have to be paid to minority officers who can demonstrate that they were unfairly denied pay-grade increases.

Hunter, the undercover detective who is one of the case’s plaintiffs, is owed about $50,000 for a two- to three-year period in the late 1980s, said Assistant City Atty. Robert Cramer.